S/O Getting rid of things

[leighann79]

So I routinely pack up some of the kids' stuff and store it down stairs. After a few months I may go through stuff and try to get rid of it. The problem comes when 6 months later one of the kids asks about a toy and I realize I probably got rid of it. What do you do then?

[mistymama]

We get rid of stuff together. I'm totally anti clutter, so every so often we'll clean out ds's room and make a pile of "give away" toys. He's fully involved and decides which toys he's willing to let go of.

The first time we did this he was around 3 and wanted to keep everything. But now he understands the toys are going to kids who don't have much and that the toys will really make them happy. So he's very good about choosing things he's willing to let go of, or does not play with often.

It's a nice lesson, and totally avoids the whole "where did x toy go" delima!

[leighann79]

I try to do that some too. I seriously have 5-8 trash bags full of toys downstairs though. And I could get 2-3 out of each of their rooms yet. We have WAY too much (thank you MIL for picking up such great stuff at the thrift store LOL) and need to get rid of some. They can't ever find anything to play with because their rooms are such a mess. They can't clean it up because it's so overwhelming. I don't blame them, lol, I don't even know where to start with it.
I've seen a lot of people mention to just pack stuff up and if the kid doesn't ask for it after X months, get rid of it. I want to do that, but maybe my kids are weird asking for it after 6+ months. LOL

[Purple Sage]

I just say 'oh I must have gotten rid of it because...you never played with it; it was broken; it was missing some parts; etc.' I just tell them the truth, and it really isn't that bad.

[leighann79]

I think I'll go ahead with that for my 10 and 7 year old. My three year old is... ummm... intense. LOL She is pretty reasonable most of the time though, so I may start involving her in what we put away more often. See if we can get her to part with some stuff. I'll just ask her more often. She can probably handle one or two things and if we do that every week or so, we can make a dent in the pile! LOL

[mistymama]

Oh man, I've been there with the huge bags of toys clean out.

We did one huge overhaul of ds's room around age 3 and ever since, I go in there and weed stuff out about once a month. My Mom likes to buy him all kinds of crap - half of it he rarely plays with ... so we regift it!

Getting his room organized was the best thing i ever did. We have large, clear plastic bins on a shelving unit for all toys. He has a box for cars, one for action heros, one for weapons, etc. Makes clean up so easy and once a bin starts getting "full" - we go through it to see what he might want to give a less fortunate child.

I'm telling you just gifting a few things a week makes a HUGE difference!